Posted
by
timothy
on Thursday April 21, 2005 @06:59PM
from the shadowing-amanda dept.

Slashback this evening provides updates on recent Slashdot stories about BBC podcasting, the impact of GPL'd fonts on documents and programs which make use of them, Moore's Law, the much-anticipated "Hitchhiker's" movie, and more -- read on below for the details.

In short, it's less of a worry than some people made it out to be in the earlier Slashdot discussion, but it's not a merely imaginary issue.

They should offer MP3 players shaped like tiny fish.ProsperoDGC writes "The BBC is offering more shows as podcasts. While only non-music programs will be available (due to potential copyright problems with music-based shows), the variety of content is representative of BBC radio's output, including news, interviews, documentaries, and sport."

Every year, the artist has to double the bottom-most layer.
Qbertino writes "The online version of the German news-magazine Der Spiegel has a short photo-bulletin on a sculpture in the Heinz-Nixdorf-Museumsforum of Paderborn. The sculpture represents Moores Law, formulated 40 years ago by Intel co-founder Gorden Moore. It states that the amount of transistors on a chip doubles every 24 months while at the same time the size of the chip halves. The law still applies to this very day. Bulletin and thumbnail here (text in German) and a larger picture here. An impressive visualization."

Look very carefully for that fellow from 'The Office.'
jangobongo writes "In an interview with SciFi Wire, Garth Jennings, director of 'Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy', reveals some hidden in-jokes and homages in the movie. Among them: Simon Jones, who played Arthur Dent in the original TV series, can be seen and heard briefly as a Magrathean announcer - in 3D (get out your red & green 3D glasses!); the original Marvin robot can be seen in a queue of volunteers lining up to save Trillian; and in several places, head shots of Douglas Adams can be seen. Look for one, as the characters are flying through the planet factory, where Douglas' whole head is a giant planet. "It's quite lovely," says Jennings."

Popping trial balloons as they slink up the flagpole.bonch writes "Sony is now backpedaling on a recent CEO's slip of the tongue about a recently reported iTunes-like movie-download service. Steve Banfield, vice president of Sony Connect, says Sony is digitizing its movies and will allow some video clips to be used royalty-free for video 'mash' projects, but that Sony is not planning to to create an 'iTunes for Hollywood.'"

Dino alive, kicking, and annoying.
Last May, we posted a story about the dino-shaped cam surviving under harsh conditions on New Zealand's volcanic White Island.

I have contacted the Free Software Foundation, responsible for the GPL,and asked them to clarify their position. Please find here my post withthe answers in between.

I post this with the consent of the author. Again, I understand this isnot an issue exclusively related to Scribus but I think the thread hasnonetheless drawn enough attention and interest so I would at least putthis reply on the list for all to read.

Louis

On Tue, 2005-04-19 at 13:28 -0400, Louis Desjardins via RT wrote:

>> A recent discussion about font management on the Scribus listbrought up
>> the following thread from one of the participant:
>>
>> "[...] it is note worthy to point out that using gpl licensed fonts
>> in a document makes the document a derived work of the font and
>> therefore, subject to the gpl."
>>
>> This assertion immediately raised questions. One of which being whatwas
>> the source of that information. It became clear this issue is to be
>> considered as serious, as it is established on your website.
>>
>> The main concern is how a font can contamitate a publication, or towhat
>> extent exactly? In other words, what does that mean, exactly, for
>> someone using GPL fonts to create a document with a DTP app such as
>> Scribus? Are there different issues when the work is intended to be
>> printed and distributed in its paper form or when the same work will be
>> sent out or made available as a PDF, and whether this PDF has some
>> interactive functionnality or not (such as a form to be filled, or
>> external web links, internal links and the like), and whether the fonts
>> are embedded or not?

The situation we were considering is one where a font "program" isembedded in a document (rather than merely referenced). This wouldallow a document to be viewed as the author intended it even on machinesthat didn't have the font.

So, the document file (a work) would be derived from the font file(another work). The text of the document, of course, would beunrestricted when distributed without the font.

We were unhappy with even this amount of influence for fonts, because(a) it's rarely what font authors intend and (b) it's possible that someapplications do embedding behind the user's back. The situation seemedto me to be similar to the case of the runtime libraries which GCCautomatically includes in its output (and which are licensed to permitinclusion in proprietary software). So, I wrote the font exception yousee on our web site. It's experimental; we're sure it's not perfect,and we welcome comments.

In the US, as I understand it, font faces -- that is, the look of afont, are not copyrightable. But font "programs" (truetype fonts, forexample) are. I don't know how font copyright works in other countries.So, printed documents should not be affected in the US.

>> As a user, do we have to worry about using fonts release under the GPL?
>> Can this cause a client's work (provided we use Scribus to layout his
>> job with GPL fonts and possibly along with commercial fonts, all this
>> work being done as a living and thus we get paid to do it) to beobliged
>> to be released under the GPL? If so, why then use GPL fonts?

We wrote the exception you see on our web site explicitly to handle thiscase. Note that you need to always check the license on your fonts inany

Actually, it's true. This is why Microsoft can ship a copy of Arial (a Helvetica ripoff made by Monotype) without paying any royalties to the company that owns the real typeface (Linotype). There's a decent writeup of the Arial/Helvetica issue here [ms-studio.com].

Actually, you raise a good point. I've just been researching this issue for my final writeup (based on the letter I sent to Scribus), and it's a little more complex than I first thought. Basically, there's (effectively) a circuit split, although the opinion (effectively) supporting font face copyright (a) claims not to and (b) is unpublished. Also, the copyright office reportedly disagrees with itself, but (of course) none of the rules are online from the office itself; they're buried in federal archives

I'm using a GPLed font (Antykwa Poltawskiego [angband.pl]) thoroughly in a proprietary program I'm doing at work. I assumed this is ok, as the font is not linked in in any way -- the lack of it in the operating system's fonts directory will just make the program's appearance different.

The program in question is developed for a single customer, and doesn't even come with an installer at all -- so, I don't have any issues at the moment. I install everything by hand, so the font isn't even explicitely distributed.

In my, not so legal, opinion, embedding a font is a typical *use* of that font. Since the GPL, by its terms, does not cover use, embedding a font is not an act of distribution as contemplated by the GPL. Additional evidence supporting this view is that the font designer has ticked the "may embed" bit in the font descriptor explicitly allowing embedding and the fact that fonts can not, in ordinary operation, be extracted from documents in which they have been enbedded. Additional assistance may be obtained f

Just imagine how long that pink piece of plastic would last in a friggin landfill.

No - this is a good thing!
After the conservative religious movement in America and elsewhere helps plunge the world into another Dark Ages, in another thousand years or so, the new human societies will be able to get a very accurate representation of our disposable, plastic-ridden society!

They certainly won't get that information from any present day records. Those will all be non-recoverable since our beloved corporate ma

After soiety collapses we'll be mining the dumps, as all of the natural resources available to early industrial tools are long gone. The longer stuff lasts in landfills, the better for our post-apocalyptic offspring.;)

What if Microsoft uses a GPL'd font? Is Microsoft now under the GPL? What if a document of international law uses a GPL'd font, then is all of the world under the GPL? Personally, I think either would be hilarious.:)

Also, thanks, I'll definitely be looking for those in-jokes when I go to see the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!

What if a document of international law uses a GPL'd font, then is all of the world under the GPL?

No.

You can't "accidentally" put yourself under the GPL. It's not like "whoops, I accidentally released this under a license I didn't intend to!" If some international organization releases a document using a GPL font, and they retain copyright ("this document cannot be reproduced, etc., blah blah blah") the document isn't under the GPL. It's under the license they put it under.

Now, assume that the document is, in fact, a program (like, PostScript) and contains "font programs" (like, TrueType, or whatever). Then the document may be a derivative work. But guess what? It still doesn't fall under the GPL. It is just no longer distributable at all (under the license that they want, or no license whatsoever).

I know you were probably being facetious, but poor wording from the FSF and from a lot of GPL advocates has really confused the issue. The question isn't whether or not the document is under the GPL or not. That's the author's decision. It's always the author's decision. The question is whether or not it's releasable under a non-GPL license.

Man, that would be tough. Would we still have to distribute copies of the GPL with all products sold? And if I use a GPL toilet, do I need to save "samples" for people who want to make derivative works?

The annotation on the webcam picture [geonet.org.nz] intrigued me. What are those Kiwi's up to down under? Are they getting into tectonic engineering? Is that pink dinosaur a radiation-mutated tuatara [kcc.org.nz]? I can only hope that have no WMDs.

Well, I'm no geologist, but I'd be willing to bet that the "Nuclear Sciences" part refers less to nuclear power or weaponry (as you point out, New Zealand is 'nuclear-free') and more to studying radioactive isotopes of elements [gns.cri.nz] for carbon dating and the like.

As someone who bought HHGTTG and eventually put it down without finishing, I've become enthralled with the radio broadcasts. I've recently downloaded them and have been listenning to two episodes per day.
Brilliant! I guess when I was in high school I just didn't get it.
I am looking forward to the movie, expecting to be less than impressed; but we'll see.

"The original Marvin robot that was used in the TV series, we managed to track down at the BBC studios. It was all in pieces, like this dismembered body. It was really grim. And they got him out and polished him up and made all his lights work and everything, and it was great. We put him on set in the queuing group,..."

"He had cyberscanned his head for a computer game," Jennings said. "We had access to his data, so when we built the Temple of Deep Thought, which is this giant nose and nostrils, etc., it's actually Douglas' nose, perfectly rebuilt 30 feet [high]. Not that anyone is going to go, 'Hey, that's Douglas' nose,' but it just felt like quite a fun thing to do."

"At the end, the final improbability effect is Douglas' face."

Translation: They were more focused on making cute in-jokes and references to Douglas Adams than making good decisions about the movie. "Improbability effect? Perfect! Go with it!"

Yeah, but it seems to be a fundamental flaw of the people that made the movie (judging ONLY on critic's reviews) that they Missed the Point on almost all accounts. "DA put himself in a lot of places? Put crazy references in as much as you can!" might be a fun idea, but cheering yourself for doing all these neat ideas does the audience no good if there's not a good film to back it up. It seems they are more proud of themselves for putting the old Marvin prop in the background than what they did with the Impr

for non-fans, it's a fun romp with some gags and plenty of fun effect to look at. ooh! a cute, crazy little robot! buy the plushie!

for those that are already fans of the books (and whatnot) you're going to hate it with a passion! but come back twice - there's more in jokes that you missed the first time because you were crying in your popcorn over the sheer bloody stupidity of it all. and look! there's douglas adams' nose! again!

(from TFA: "There are tons of things crammed in there. Basically if we needed a prop or a name for something we just used the original material as a reference.")

I really wish they WOULD find some way to release the music. As an avid listener of the Essential Selection and the Essential Mix, I am forced to download the shows I want through various P2P services. Thankfully, Freshly-Mixed has all of the Essential Mixes I need, but I need to rip the Essential Selection streams and convert them myself, which is a major time sink and a PITA.

There's huge demand for that, and I think the labels are nuts. They could even charge for those downloaded shows and the labels could split the proceeds.

Well, this observation is dead. The computing power and processor's bandwidth can continue to increase for a while, especially when the quantum computer does more than 3*5, but the chip cannot get a lot smaller. There is such a thing as Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle [aip.org] and unlike Star Trek, there is no Heisenberg Compensators [memory-alpha.org] for it!

Well, both you and the submitter are way off base as to the definition of Moore's law. Try a quick google and read intel's page or maybe even Moore's original paper.He observed that the number of transistors or "components" per i.c. would double every 2 years. That's it. So technically it could keep going forever. But you'll end up with a big i.c. eventually. He said nothing of the size afaik.

Moore's law will probably not survive this decade, yet alone "forever"!

You can't grow # of components per IC indefinately due to power consuption costs and production costs. At current rate, the number of components will need to grow past a billion soon, and then it has to go though a trillion in next two decades! And then a 10E15 components in 40 years!! This is unrealistic.

Sorry, this will not happen. There will be no trillion component IC, yet alone 10E15. And how big would the processor need to be in

Upset about the Lord of the Rings? Angry about Hitchhikers? Sassy about about Sahara or exercised by X-men? To save time in future, please fill out this form first:

GFC/97X - GENERIC FAN COMPLAINT

I've just come back from seeing the long-awaited adaptation of the classic _____. It was terrible! It was full of glaring errors and unnecessary changes like
o _____ has the wrong [accent / hair colour / facial expression]
o _____ says _____, but in the original he actually says _____
o I always imagined the city of ____ would look like _____ and not _____
o the relationship between _____ and _____ just wasn't right
o leaving out all the [poems / songs / bestiality]

I'm also mad that they omitted the vital character of
o _____'s [brother / sister / father / mentor / sidekick/ turtle]
o the [barkeep / general / wizard] at the [inn / base / mystic Elven village of Elrohéremélossëhelin na Telperiën]
o second trooper to the left

Sure it might be alright if you're
o not a fan
o didn't read the special small press issue with a limited run of 12 that came out in the early 80s and is OMGWTFBBQ totally brilliant
o an oxygen-breather
o have a life

but Hollywood totally failed to do justice to it! Why didn't they
o make a 17 hour version, so they could fit everything in
o make a trilogy, so they could fit everything in
o make a television series, so they could fit everything in
o film absolutely all of it and release it on the DVD as extras, so they could fit everything in

I'm sure thousands if not millions of fans would pay for that! In fact, we should
o write a petition
o start a campaign to raise money

I'm so angry that I'm going to
o post my opnion on a dozen forums, complaining bitterly to anyone who will listen
o see the film another 10 times, complaining bitterly to anyone who will listen
o queue up for the sequel, complaining bitterly to anyone who will listen
o buy the DVDs when they come out, first release and special edition, complaining bitterly to anyone who will listen
o announce loudly that I'm going to transfer my allegiance to a fandom that deserves me, like
o Battlestar Galactica
o The A-Team
o Bubblestar Robot Whore Battalion Miyozuki

Sony is a Movie Studio. They compete with other studios. The other studios won't license their films to Sony. It's like when Pepsi bought Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC - the fast food competition ran to Coke.

Sony can't do a Music Store for the same reason.

It's nice when mega-mergers come back to bite you in the ass once in a while.

Apple does well because they're neutral and Steve Jobs is in the entertainment industry so he can talk the talk.